Billy Beane, like a gambler who stayed up all night chasing the big win, pushed in all his chips around dawn Thursday.

Very early on the morning of baseball's trade deadline, the A's general manager rocked the baseball world. Again. Beane makes a habit of this every July.

After a late-night agreement, he put the finishing touches on a trade of the most visible and marketable member of the Oakland A's, Cuban slugger Yoenis Céspedes, for a proven World Series winner in Boston pitcher Jon Lester. The deal also brought back team and fan favorite Jonny Gomes. Another triple-latte later, and Beane traded pitcher Tommy Milone to Minnesota for outfielder Sam Fuld.

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The A's - already with the best record in baseball and a trendy World Series pick before Thursday - are now World Series favorites.

"We wanted the best player out there," Beane said, adding, "there's a certain satisfaction in getting it done."

Across the bay, on the Giants side of things? Crickets. Giants general manager Brian Sabean, despite trying, didn't make a move to help his floundering team.

"I don't know how close we are," Sabean said with brutal honesty.

On the cusp

But Beane knows how close the A's are. Right there. Right now. He knows that this is their time. The team is the best in baseball. It has all the pieces to succeed. This is the A's best chance to win a World Series since the Mark McGwire-Jose Canseco Bash Brothers years.

They may have a punch line of a stadium, with its overflowing sewage and faded tarps. They may have no realistic plans for a move anytime soon, having just completed an acrimonious renewal process on their Coliseum lease. They may be a low-budget operation and have little name recognition around the country.

But this is the A's moment, and Beane knows it.

Unlike others in sports who profess not to believe in windows of opportunity (49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh is one), Beane knows he absolutely has one, and it's wide open.

The A's future is never certain. There is no new ballpark to build toward, no new revenue streams coming. The team's ability to retain players is always in question. Certainly their odds of signing Céspedes to the kind of contract extension he can command in 2016 were very slim. Pitcher Jeff Samardzija, who arrived in Beane's July 4 blockbuster trade with the Cubs, will also be a free agent in 2016 and will be looking for a big deal.

As his team struggled on its recent road trip, and the backend of the starting rotation looked problematic, Beane saw an opportunity to get one of the best pitchers in the game. Lester has two World Series rings: He pitched Games 1 and 5 last October, has won three World Series games and given up just one run in the Fall Classic. He has a 2.52 ERA this season with the woeful Red Sox, and automatically becomes the ace of an already loaded staff. And by acquiring him, Beane made sure the division rival Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim didn't.

Now Céspedes is gone, off to a future of smashing drives off and over Fenway Park's Green Monster, where he may or may not become a superstar. Céspedes helped the A's to two American League West championships, but he didn't help them get past the Detroit Tigers in the division series either year. The A's needed something else to go further, and pitching is what wins in October.

Clubhouse chemistry

If there are chemistry issues involved in the removal of the popular Céspedes from the roster, the arrival of clubhouse leader Gomes helps alleviate those concerns. Beane doesn't really worry about the kind of touchy-feely issues that can't be solved with a cell phone and speed dial. But if he does think about them, he knows that his manager, Bob Melvin, will help the team connect quickly. That's a luxury Beane didn't have in past years when he was wheeling and dealing, ripping apart and reassembling his roster. Melvin is a master in the clubhouse and getting everyone pulling on the same rope.

Home run king

Nor does Beane worry much about losing a marketable face of the franchise. Céspedes, who has won back-to-back Home Run Derbies and made spectacular plays in the outfield, is as close as the A's have to a nationally recognized star.

On Saturday, the day Lester will take the mound in the green and gold for the first time, the A's are scheduled to give away 10,000 Céspedes "La Potencia" (the Power) T-shirts. The team announced that it is going ahead with the giveaway, apparently to corner the market on nostalgic collectors' items.

This is one more example of why the A's don't invest heavily in marketing. The players are all movable pieces.

"I'm a marketing department's worst nightmare," Beane said.

The only item that could have any staying power is a green-and-gold shirt honoring Beane "El Jugador" (the gambler).